Friday, August 13, 2010

Czech language - Part 2

It has been a month since I started to dig into the Czech language. It has been fun. I forgot how exciting it is to learn new languages. The only downside is gG thinks it is his enermy. He gets jealous whenever I study and cover the materials with his furry body. :(

Anyway... last time I talked about nouns and adjectives. Since then, I learned a lot :-) I learned the possessive pronouns, which also change depending on the gender of noun following it. For instance, if you want to say "my brother," since the noun "brother" is masculine, you need to use "můj" for "my." If you want to say "my sister," since the noun "sister" is feminine, you need to use "moje" instead. The same rule applies to yours (singular), ours, and yours (plural and formal) as well.

Anyway, that was the easier part. Now I started to learn about verbs. There are three types of verbs: á-verbs, í-verbs, and e-verbs (regular and irregular). Depending on the type, you have to change the form based on the subject. For instance, "vstávat (= to get up)" is an á-verb in infinitive form. If I want to say, "I get up," you have to change "vstávat" to "vstávám." The verb basically changes like this: (I)-vstávám, (you)-vstáváš, (he/she/it)-vstává, (we)-vstáváme, (you-plural)-vstáváte, (they)-vstávají.

The í-verbs (e.g. rozumět = to understand) change like this: (I)-rozumím, (you)-rozumíš, (he/she/it)-rozumí, (we)-rozumíme, (you-plural)-rozumíte, (they)-rozumí. The regular e-verbs (e.g. pracovat = to work) change goes like this: (I)-pracuju, (you)-pracuješ, (he/she/it)-pracuje, (we)-pracujeme, (you-plural)-pracujete, (they)-pracujou. Once you remember the rules, they become easy. The hard one is the irregular e-verb. It is irregular, so you just have to remember (at least the how it changes with "I"). For instance, číst (= to read) will change like this: (I)-čtu, (you)-čteš, (he/she/it)-čte, (we)-čteme, (you-plural)-čtete, (they)-čtou.

It is much easier for me to write than speak of course, but even then if I want to say "You have a beautiful cat," you have to determine 1) cat's gender, 2) then which form of adjective to use depending on the gender of cat, 3) the form of verb - whether it is á-verbs, í-verbs, or e-verbs, 4) subject, 5) change the form of verb based on the subject, and not to mention changing the noun and adjective to the accusative form. In this case, it shall be "Máte krásnou kočku (given the assumption that the cat is a female cat or its gender unknown)." Whew!